it is a very windy day here in rochester
in the southeast of england and the only
place i could find a film where my
tripod wasn't getting blown over was uh
sheltered here by the castle walls so
apologies that the background isn't
quite as picturesque as it usually is
i've got a story for you i actually cut
three whole paragraphs from the start of
my script for this because i was going
to explain the history of what makes a
city a city in the uk but honestly it
was a bit dull and the actual story here
is how a local government tried to save
a bit of money and ended up losing a
status symbol that was nearly 800 years
old the only thing i need to cover first
is that after centuries of changes to
the rules the british definition of a
city now in the 21st century is that a
city is a city because it's on the
government's list of cities that's it
that's the whole definition despite what
many people think it's got nothing to do
with size or power or population or
cathedrals or castles or universities or
history those might be reasons why a
city was put on the list centuries in
the past but these days the only rule is
is it on the government's list a new
cities get added to the list because the
queen says so usually when there's some
big national celebration sometimes there
will be a competition and bidding
process and a few dozen towns and
villagers will file paperwork saying why
they should get city status
the decision is actually taken by
government ministers of course the queen
just uh approves it but officially queen
says that one and that's the city now
it was a really bad impression of the
queen so the people of rochester were
quite surprised in 2002 when they
discovered that rochester was no longer
on the list it hadn't been for four
years and they were now living in a
regular town not a city not because they
angered the queen although that would
have been fun but apparently because
someone forgot to file some paperwork
rochester had been a city since the 13th
century when its cathedral was
consecrated and that made sense when
there was a cathedral and a small town
around it and then countryside but by
the 1970s urban expansion had merged the
string of towns along this bit of the
medway river strewed rochester chatham
they were all one big conglomeration
joined up together so in 1974 as part of
national reforms all those local
governments were merged too legally
becoming the borough of medway rochester
as an actual legal place with the local
government was no more but the queen
issued some special paperwork called
letters patent that said yes okay fine
rochester the part that's been a city
for 800 years that can still be a city
which would have been fine
a few years later the local government
then petitioned to extend that city
status to the whole borough calling it
rochester upon medway great big city
covers the whole area and it's not tied
to the old city boundaries anymore it's
tied to the local government district
instead
which probably seemed like a good idea
at the time until 1998 when districts
were due to be merged again in another
local government reshuffle the towns of
gilliam and raynham were going to be
connected in and the whole area would
legally become known as just medway and
by that time the rules had changed to
stay a city they didn't just need a bit
of paperwork from the queen the local
council had to appoint charter trustees
a group to represent the original city
the cost was estimated at about 60 000
pounds
exactly what happened next depends on
who you ask and when you asked it no one
seemed to notice at all until four years
after the reshuffle when a local
historical society spotted that
rochester wasn't on the list anymore in
news articles from back then it was put
down to an administrative error but a
few years ago one party's politicians
dug through some paperwork looked up
some minutes of meetings and blamed the
other side for doing it as a deliberate
policy a freedom of information request
pulled the minutes from the archives
into public view just a few weeks ago as
i record this and as far as i can tell
they're inconclusive it might be that
the council didn't understand the
consequences it might be that no one
wanted to pay for it and the buck kept
being passed now there is a standard
rule of thumb called hanlon's razor
never a tribute to malice what can be
explained by incompetence but also those
meeting minutes are written in exactly
the sort of kind of ambiguous way that i
would write if i knew i was making a
risky decision and i wanted to avoid
blame for it later the truth is probably
lost to history because no one is going
to remember what was actually said in
those meetings more than 20 years later
and even if they did
they probably won't want to take the
blame now
and now the city's status is lost
rochester can't get it back because
rochester isn't really a legally defined
place anymore sure you can type the name
into a navigation app you will get here
there are signs you could probably draw
some borders with a bit of research but
there is no legal rochester council who
could appoint those trustees that hasn't
been for 20 years medway could become a
city they've tried a few times but the
queen hasn't chosen them yet and medway
is not rochester
does it make any difference legally no
village neighborhood town city none of
them have any distinction in british law
anymore but one of those words makes the
place sound bigger and more prestigious
maybe being on the list would affect
whether a place gets investment or
businesses moving to the area
but it looks like rochester will now
forever be
well
arguably
not even a town just a neighborhood of
medway
a very very windy neighborhood of midway
there's a storm coming tomorrow it would
have been worse
you